John,

Our Social Security system has survived world wars, pandemics, and recessions. But without a rapid course correction, it may not survive Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Their “Department of Government Efficiency” ― which they call DOGE ― is taking an axe to the Social Security Administration, the government agency that has made sure that Social Security hasn’t missed a payment in 90 years.

Nancy Altman of Social Security Works has been one of the loudest voices defending Social Security. We’re proud to have hosted her at a Sanders Institute Gathering last year.

You may have seen Nancy’s comments in the Washington Post, the New York Times, or on news shows in the past month. We asked her what the Sanders Institute community needs to know about this attack. Here’s a few facts that Nancy Altman asked us to tell you:

Elon Musk has replaced the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration when she refused to provide his DOGE goons access to private Social Security data. He leapfrogged over 120 more senior employees to install a DOGE sympathizer, Leland Dudek.

Dudek has reportedly laid off at 7,000 of SSA’s already-understaffed, overworked workforce. SSA staff were sent a message on February 27 telling them the organization will soon undergo an “agency-wide organizational restructuring” and incentivizing them to resign rather than get fired.

Trump and Musk have also instructed the government to terminate the leases on SSA’s over 1,200 field offices, which are critical for the agency’s public-facing work. Musk and Trump even briefly listed the Social Security Administration’s headquarters as “non-core property” to be “disposed of.”

They’ve ordered all workers to return to the office. But where are those workers supposed to go if their offices are closed? This only makes sense if the ultimate plan is not just to fire the currently reported 7,000 workers from SSA, but everyone!

Many of SSA’s most senior employees, including five of eight regional commissioners, have left. This is causing an enormous brain drain. Together, they represent a huge loss of critical institutional knowledge. Collectively, those employees had almost 1,000 years of institutional knowledge and skills.

SSA was already severely underfunded and understaffed before all of this. The DOGE bloodbath could lead to its collapse.

That’s the point of the whole game. Social Security is one of the most popular and successful programs in our nation’s history. These actions by DOGE are intended to degrade service and make it difficult for people to access the benefits they’ve paid into their whole lives. Then, Wall Street politicians will cite that dysfunction as a reason to cut benefits, scrap Social Security altogether or to privatize it.

Let’s be clear: The only crisis Social Security faces is one that oligarchs like Elon Musk and Donald Trump are quite intentionally causing. Instead of cutting our earned benefits, we should PROTECT and EXPAND benefits by making billionaires pay in at the same rate as the rest of us.

That’s why the Sanders Institute is partnering with Nancy and Social Security Works on a petition to send a clear message to Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE: Cuts to the Social Security Administration are cuts to Social Security! We want to PROTECT and EXPAND, not cut, Social Security!

Will you join us and add your name to the petition?

Thank you for your support,

Jane O’Meara Sanders
The Sanders Institute